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Captain America Comics #4: Review

Jun 1941
Joe Simon, Jack Kirby

Story Name:

Captain America and the Unholy Legion

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Captain America Comics #4 Review by (February 15, 2010)
a) President Roosevelt says no one knows who Captain America is; wasn’t Project Super-Soldier a government initiative? Must be a cover story for the public's benefit. b) Cap’s first confrontation with a Russian menace, sort of.

New and Improved Comments: 1) President Roosevelt says no one knows who Captain America is; wasn’t Project Super-Soldier a government initiative? Must be a cover story for the public's benefit. 2) Cap’s first confrontation with a Russian menace, sort of. 5) Text story, with two illustrations. It isn’t explained why the crooks can’t break into the clubhouse when it is not being used. 6) Part one of a two-part story.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Captain America Comics #4 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Patriotic leaders are being murdered by filthy beggars, members of a Nazi organization called the Unholy Legion. When Steve and Bucky see a legless beggar walking, Bucky pursues him to an old public building where a meeting of the Unholy Legion is in progress. Bucky disguises himself as a street urchin and infiltrates the group, but is spotted for an impostor when he can’t show a swastika brand. Captured by the mob and facing a Nazi branding-iron, Bucky is rescued by Captain America and they mop up the spies. While Bucky herds them into a cage, Cap pursues the leader who is heading through an escape tunnel to a waiting U-boat. Cap and Bucky manage to get on board as well and plant a bomb, jumping overboard just before it detonates. The beggar leader manages to escape through a torpedo tube and heads back to his base, freeing his followers. Cap and Bucky again clean house and turn the Unholy Legion over to the FBI.


Story #2

Captain America and Ivan the Terrible

Writer: Jack Kirby. Writer: Joe Simon. Penciler: Jack Kirby. Inker: Jack Kirby. Inker: Joe Simon.

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

In Siberia, Ivan the Terrible, King of the Tartars, rules with an iron hand. One of his prisoners is Betty Ross, daughter of the rightful king; he has her thrown in the dungeon. Two more prisoners are Captain America and Bucky who insult him to his face; when Ivan attacks Cap with a knife the hero punches him in the eye. Ivan orders them tossed in the dungeon too. They easily escape and find Betty’s father, the exiled king. Bringing Betty and her dad to the castle, Cap and Bucky enter, beat up Ivan the Terrible and force him to abdicate in favor of King Peter. Cap and Bucky are heroes—and at this point Bucky wakes up from his dream.


Story #3

The Case of the Fake Money Fiends

Writer: Jack Kirby. Writer: Joe Simon. Penciler: Jack Kirby. Penciler: Joe Simon. Inker: Joe Simon.

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Steve and Bucky hear tales of a haunted house in Hillsdale so as Captain America and Bucky they go to investigate. Entering the house they are menaced by ghosts who turn out to be men in sheets. Going down to the cellar they find a counterfeiters’ operation with Betty Ross a prisoner. Cap and Bucky shut it down but Betty tells them the mastermind is at another one of their hideouts. Cap goes undercover as a visiting farmer and when a shady character passes him a fake bill he follows the man to the hideout where Cap and Bucky again swing into action and this time capture the leader too.


Story #4

Horror Hospital

Writer: Jack Kirby. Writer: Joe Simon. Penciler: Jack Kirby. Penciler: Joe Simon. Inker: Joe Simon.

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

When Bucky is struck on the head during an encounter with robbers, Captain America hurriedly changes them into their army uniforms and asks a cabbie to take them to the nearest hospital. The hospital turns out to be a remote private hospital run by the creepy Doctor Grimm. Steve leaves Bucky overnight but in the night, the new nurse disappears and Bucky sees a deformed weirdo wandering the halls. Dr. Grimm assures him Igan is harmless and denies hearing the nurse scream. Bucky writes a message detailing his suspicions to Cap but is caught; Grimm mails the note anyway and sets a trap for the hero. When Cap breaks in he is attacked by Igan, who fills the room with water. Cap burst out only to be taken at gunpoint by Grimm. The mad doctor explains how his hospital is a means of finding victims whose blood is drained to feed his experiment Gorro. When Betty Ross arrives to apply for the nurse position she is captured too. When Cap sees Bucky about to be sacrificed he goes into a rage, punches out Dr Grimm and frees Bucky and Betty. Grimm frees Gorro which turns out to be a huge ape-like monster. Cap holds it off until Bucky shoots it in the face. After a battle with Cap, Grimm plunges to his death from a high balcony.


Story #5

Captain America and the Bomb Sight Thieves

Writer: Stan Lee.

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

One evening, Bucky Barnes is on his way to a meeting of the Sentinels of Liberty boys’ club. He doesn’t know he is being followed by two crooks, Monk and One-Eye, who are planning to crash the meeting so they can break through the clubhouse wall into Prof. Colby’s lab next door. There they will steal the Professor’s new bomb sight and sell it to a foreign power. The hoods don’t reckon on one thing, though: Steve Rogers is a guest of the club that evening. As Monk heads into the lab, Steve punches out One-Eye and returns as Captain America. The kids chase Monk back into the clubhouse where Cap takes care of him too. The crooks are delivered to the police and Steve encourages the boys to try their best to do their duty.


Story #6

The Ogre of the Cave-Dwellers

Writer: Jack Kirby. Writer: Joe Simon. Penciler: Reed Crandall. Inker: Reed Crandall.

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

As Tuk the Caveboy and his companion Tanir continue on their quest they encounter a tribe of cave-dwellers who are fleeing from the evil Bonzo the Brute and his band of marauders. When one of the cave-dwellers who has stayed behind to protect his wife and newborn fights the gang, he is killed. Tanir slays a villain with an arrow to stop him from harming the woman and Tuk helps her and the baby to escape. As Tanir spies on them he is captured and forced to join the marauders or die. Pretending to hunt down Tuk, Tanir explains to his companion that he is infiltrating the gang in order to end Bonzo’s reign. He then returns to the gang as a (nearly) trusted member….


Story #7

The Pirate and the Sinking Ships

Writer: Jack Kirby. Writer: Joe Simon. Penciler: Reed Crandall. Inker: Reed Crandall.

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

In the sixteenth century, pirate Old John Cruthers was exiled to a remote Pacific island; to gain revenge he formed the island’s natives into a horde of deadly buccaneers. Today their descendants are preying on America shipping near Hawaii. The Hurricane learns of this and heads out to the islands to put an end to their reign of terror. He comes upon them assaulting a liner and chases them to their ship and then raises a storm to blow them back to their island base. He meets them there and calls up an even greater storm to sink the island and send the pirates to Hades, where Pluto will give them a warm reception.


Jack Kirby
Al Avison
Jack Kirby (Cover Penciler)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Bucky Barnes
Bucky Barnes

(James Barnes)
Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)

Plus: Betsy Ross (FBI Agent), Hurricane, Nazis, Tuk Caveboy.

> Captain America Comics: Book info and issue index

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